This
cute quilt is great for using up scraps. I saw a photo of the block
online and decided to recreate it. Having lots of dies comes in
handy when you need different shapes, and I love the challenge of
figuring out how to use them together to build a new design and save time.
Staying with my theme, I decided to piece with Tojo, my Japanese made Universal machine. I started with a stack of 2½” x 6½” rectangles, sewing three random ones together. After pressing, I carefully laid several on the 6½” snowball die to trim off the corners. Using cream background fabric, I cut new snowball corners (2½” HST) and stitched them on.
To make the lantern top/bottom strips, I cut 2½” x 3½” rectangles of cream background and black gingham. I sewed two cream and one gingham together, then used the 1½” strip die to cut perfectly sized rectangles. I sewed two of these to a 4½” x 6½” background fabric rectangle, made with 4½” strips, cut again with the 6½” square die.
I
alternated these with the snowball blocks on my design wall. I liked
the look, except that the lanterns on the top and bottom rows were
not complete. To fix that, I added the narrow strip to those
snowballs, then used a 6½” square in place of the 4½” x 6½”ones on those rows.
Once
all the rows were stitched, I chose a wave ruler to quilt with cream
thread 2” apart over the entire quilt. Japanese Lanterns finished
out at 49” x 52” in size.
I
used a lot of dies, and did a lot of cutting. I guess there could be
an easier way to make this but I'm happy with how it turned out. I hope my description of the process makes sense. The
extra cuts kept everything trimmed and squared up neatly. I had fun
and used up a stack of remnants, so it's all good!
Dies
used:
Blue
Wren
6047
Rectangles 6½” x 2½” and 3½” x 2½”
6015
Strip 1½”
Accuquilt
55330
Snowball 6½”
55054
Strip 4½”
55006
Square 6½”
55017
Strip 2½”
